It's A Small World After All "Hi."

"Uh hey," Pacey replied uneasily as he bent down to pick up his back pack. "How'd you get in?"

"Bryan let me in as he was leaving. He's got a date or something like that."

"Okay," Pacey closed the door behind him carefully. "What's up?"

"You've been avoiding me or maybe you haven't but I wanted to talk to you and see what was up. I haven't been able to get you alone lately so this seemed like the best way," Joey was talking nervously. "Sorry if this feels like an ambush or something."

"Well I definitely wasn't expecting you."

"Are you busy?"

Pacey held up the pizza box he had been balancing along with his books, "I was just about to eat this. I guess you could join me."

They ate in silence on the floor for a few minutes before Pacey broke the ice, "So you're right."

"About?"

"I've been avoiding you."

"Is it because of what happened at Thanksgiving?"

"You could say that. I just didn't know what to think about all of it Jo." He picked up another piece of pizza. "I know that you tried to explain it and you think it's cause we were drunk. But frankly I think that it goes deeper than that."

"That's what Holly thinks," Joey told him as she got up off the floor she walked to Pacey's desk and looked at the pictures carefully arranged.

"What do you think about it? Holly's opinion doesn't really factor in here."

Joey picked a picture frame up off of the shelf, she was stalling because she didn't quite know her answer yet. "I remember this like it was yesterday," she told him quietly. Pacey didn't reply he was waiting for her to answer his question. She stared even harder at the picture. It was of Pacey and her sitting at a picnic table at his goodbye party. "I'm surprised I was even able to smile for this picture," she said gently.

"You had a good time that day. I should know I was there." He'd ask her again later.

"Pacey I was wreck!" she cried.

**

Pacey leaned against the side of the car as Joey stood in front of him biting back tears. "I looked all over Joey I couldn't find a suitcase big enough to hide you." He was about to leave Capeside for good.

She managed a small giggle but her face turned solid again, "You can't leave Pacey."

"I don't want to."

"But you have to," she said sadly. They had repeated the words over and over in the last few days.

"We'll still talk. Pinky swear."

Joey wiggled his pinky. "What am I going to do without you?" Joey whispered.

Pacey tipped up her chin, "What about me?" He wrapped his arms around her. "You think I'll meet anyone like you in Maine. I doubt it."

"I'm gonna miss you," her voice cracked.

"I'll miss you too," he felt her tighten her grip on his shirt. "Bye Jo."

She inhaled lightly, a mixture of soap, fabric softener, cologne and something unidentifiable. It was her favourite smell in the whole world, distinctly Pacey. "Bye Pacey." Those two words were the most pitiful noises he had ever heard.

**

Pacey looked at her blankly. "I would have cut off my legs if it meant that you would've stayed in Capeside," she put the picture frame back on the shelf.

"What are you talking about?"

"I didn't want you to go. You were, are my best friend. I nearly fell apart when you left. I wanted to get out of Capeside so badly. The only thing that made that town bearable was the fact that you were there. I'd already lost most of the friendship I had with Dawson and then we got so close that summer. You were all that mattered to me then." She stopped abruptly, embarrassed at having said so much.

"Joey it was hard for me to leave too. Do you have any idea how many I times I almost stayed with my dad? Or how close I came to staying with Dawson until graduation. I'd never wanted to do anything but leave that place and then I got a chance and I nearly gave it up because I wanted to stay with you. But I had to go because my mom needed me."

Joey replaced the picture on the shelf and faced Pacey, "How do you think things would've turned out if you hadn't left?"

"The honest truth?" Joey nodded. "Well I finally would've gotten around to telling you I loved you. We'd be disgustingly happy and have four kids, the dog, the minivan and the sports car."

"Four kids!"

"Drew, Hannah, Morgan and Pacey junior."

"You even had the names?"

"Well yea and the dog Oompa Loompa," Pacey laughed. The serious mood in the room had been lifted a little. "What about you, what would've happened?"

Joey blushed slightly, "I didn't really dwell on it all that much. But we had two kids not four."

"That wasn't so hard now was it?"